The Investment Committee meeting continued for three hours until Gayatri and team decided to break for lunch. It had been a productive morning, she had heard three solid investment ideas which could make millions for the firm, and had directed her team to follow up on another couple of research leads. Plus, Ramesh had ensured that her feet were well massaged and attended to all morning. Gayatri was in a good mood.
She ordered for lunch to be set up in the executive dining room. The firm had earlier restricted the access to the executive dining room to just the Partners and to host important investors who visited the office. Most of her team hadn't seen the inside of the well-furnished room, with its dark-wood paneling, tasteful warm lighting and a long, oak table at its centre.
It was quite a change for the young women in her team, from hurriedly grabbing a sandwich to eat at their desk to being treated to a sit-down, multi-course lunch crafted by a proper chef.
It was also quite a change for the men, especially the senior folks. They had gone from their smug privilege of being invited to lunch with the Executive Committee to crawling naked into the same room to serve the very women who had been their junior staff till a day ago.
Gayatri deemed it proper for the servers to wear something. "Just because they are filthy slaves doesn't mean we have to suffer the sight of their paws. Let's get them the proper butler attire. Minus the shirt and pants, though," she laughed.
The slaves were fitted out with white gloves and a black bow-tie. It was a funny sight to see them naked, with just a tie on their neck, walking formally to get the dishes, presenting the same at the table with a flourish, one hand behind their back like a proper English butler would. Except that, instead of standing straight-backed after serving, the slaves were made to kneel beside the table while the women savoured their leisurely meal.
Gayatri snapped her fingers and Ramesh got into the footstool pose underneath the table for her to rest one foot on his bare back, while he held her other foot with his hands and started licking it. Lily, Robin and the other women got their cue and made the other slaves lick their feet while they ate.
After they were finished with their meal, Gayatri told Ramesh to fetch a big bowl and all the leftover food from each plate was dumped into it. She then ordered him empty that bowl of mishmash on the floor.
"Slaves, good service. You dogs have shown that you are quick learners. I am quite pleased with all of you. Go for it," she pointed to the leftovers spread out on the floor.
While Ramesh was used to eating off the floor, Ajay and the other slaves were shocked! They had thought that Gayatri's "you will be eating off the floor" was just a figure of speech to make them clean the office. Gayatri had deliberately sent Ramesh to the cafeteria to fetch post-lunch coffee for the women, so the other slaves didn't have the benefit of simply following his lead.
All six slaves hesitated. They were hungry from all the physical labour done since morning, but some instinctive ickiness about eating food thrown on the floor gave them pause. They looked at Gayatri with pleading eyes but she simply stood there waiting for them to make a move.
Finally, hunger got the better of Bobby Singh, an MD till yesterday and a naked slave today. He went across and gingerly picked up a morsel with his fingers. Just as he was about to eat, Gayatri kicked the food out of his hands. She turned to her team and asked, "Girls, have you ever seen a dog eat with its paws?"
"Of course not. Dogs eat with their mouth," Robin answered, getting the hint.
"Should we allow these dogs to use their paws?" Gayatri continued. She had sensed that not all the women in the team had a strong enough personality to dominate the men. Unlike her, they hadn't grown up ordering people around, and so it didn't come naturally to them. She wanted them to come to terms with the power they had - showing them that how a slave eats depended on their word was a way of reinforcing that message.
"No, let them eat off the floor like the dogs they are," Lily chimed in.
"Yes, they can't say they weren't given fair warning. You did tell them that they should make the office floor clean enough to eat off it," Ankita added. She had been a junior associate in Bobby's team and had been at the receiving end of one of Bobby's infamous rants when she had made some errors in her research. Now, she was relishing the opportunity to pay Bobby back.
"Sorry dogs, the team has voted - no paws," Gayatri turned to the slaves and said in a tone with mock pity. "Of course, if the food isn't to your liking, you can always skip lunch. Am sure a warm dinner awaits at home," she added. She wanted to see how many of them would choose honour over hunger. Not that they had any honour left, given they were naked, on their hands and knees, bowing before her and the other women.
"I have an idea. Why should they get food until they have earned it? Let them work for it," Viji said. Viji had spent eight years at the firm, but was still only a Senior Associate. While she was quite competent at her work, she had always been a quiet person, and could appear under-confident. She was a voluptuous woman, and had been the subject of snide remarks on her body from some of the guys at the last annual firm party. They all thought her too timid to react, so their bullying had been quite brazen.
"Excellent idea, Viji. Why don't you suggest some games for the slaves to entertain us? The winner gets to eat, the losers can compete again for a chance to eat!" Gayatri agreed with enthusiasm. She was happy to see that the women were slowly discovering their dominant nature.
"How about a doggy race? Let's make them race on all fours to the end of the hall and back!" Viji suggested.
"Better still, let's make them race and fetch our shoes in their mouth. After all, that's what dogs are good at, right? Playing fetch!" Ankita added. She was warming up to this idea of making her former boss grovel for his meal.
